Duty (An Armorer/Paladin Story)

Getting ready to suit up

I woke up feeling really good and content. Then I remembered what had happened yesterday and groaned. I had to stretch really gingerly, but I felt less sore than I had yesterday. Those guys. Double-teaming me with emotional appeals and facts.

How the hell did I end up as a hero? Shaking my head, I rolled out of bed, not disturbing the dogs in the slightest.

Waiting for me in the shop on the end of the bench was a cashmere sweater similar to the one I'd been wearing in the incident that had been ruined by bullet holes and blood and a new La Perla bra, the sheer Windflower in dark blue. There had been a bullet hole in the band in the back of the one I'd been wearing. I didn't want to think about how Tony knew my bra size. We were going to have a talk about that. Or not, I thought, thinking about how that conversation could go.

Functionally, my day was going to be a loss. My current projects were all the kind that required me to physically form the pieces, and that wasn't going to happen until my ribs were better. On the plus side, I had a doctor's note excusing me from the obstacle course and calisthenics, too.

I did a bit of unnecessary cleaning, then looked up as I was getting ready to go to the meeting. I hoped there wouldn't be a fuss. Steve opened the door and came in. "You didn't need to come get me," I said, faintly chiding. "I was getting ready."

"I was in the area," he said easily, smiling. What area? There was just me and the other geeks out here. I smiled at him, not fooled a bit. He looked at the sweater and touched it. "Tony?" he asked, and I rolled my eyes. He grinned. "Nice. Sorry about ruining yours." He blushed when he saw the bra. I picked up my coat to divert attention. He held my coat with his good hand, helping me put it on. I took the good arm lightly.

"How's the shoulder?" I asked as we started up toward the meeting.

"Still sore, amazingly," he said, teasing me. "Even I'll take a few days to bounce back from this. You get a reprieve from the obstacle course for a few days."

"I get the reprieve until the doctor clears me," I said. "I have a note and everything."

"Careful, Grandma, you'll fall and break a hip," Tony said, coming up on my other side. "Can't fight evil in a walker."

"You'll be awfully sorry if the joints in your suit happen to freeze all at once," I threatened, and we bickered all the way to the building. Steve didn't try to referee, walking on with a slight smile on his face.

We weren't the first ones in the conference room, but nobody batted an eye when they saw me. They knew me pretty well. All except Scott. He came around the table to give me a big hug. Then Nick got the meeting started, treating me exactly the same. I settled in to hear about Wanda's progress in treatment. Then there was an update about Natasha; she'd run into 'a little trouble' tracking down the mysterious Smith and was going to be delayed in her return. There were other odds and ends and intelligence to be shared, but no missions on the horizon. About halfway through the meeting, Bucky showed up, surveyed the room, moved Tony briskly to the side, and wheeled a chair around to sit beside me. Nick quashed Tony's protests and I smiled at Bucky, patting his arm, then turning my attention back to the briefing. The attack at the center was next up. I recommended that Tony check in with the geeks to see if they could replace the skylights with the special glass or if they'd have a better suggestion.

"We want to avoid them breaking and cutting people below," I said. "But I also don't know if the prospect of a big slab of material falling through is the best answer. It seems possible that the bad guys might have engineered the earlier trouble with the skylights to see how the team would react."

"They're in custody, right?" Bruce asked, and Nick affirmed this. Bucky reported the results of the interrogations, which was mainly that they'd been hired to take out as many of the team as possible and that Captain America was a specific target. They were among the remnants of HYDRA, but that was the only useful information they seemed to have. Like Night Terror, they'd been contracted through a series of dead drops. We kicked this information around until the meeting ended when a team from Promotions showed up.